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Manufacturing · Quality

Automated scrap and quality-cost reporting for a quality team

A controlled pilot evaluated a repeatable, checkable monthly reporting workflow for scrap and quality-cost data.

Delivered scope
29 mo
of scrap detail reconciled
4
comparison views: MoM, YoY, 12-month and full period
Top 3
cause categories surfaced for review
1
checkable monthly reporting workflow
SCRAP / MONTHTOP 3 CAUSESMonths of scrap detail become a trend you can act on.
Background

The quality team tracked scrap in monthly spreadsheets. Producing the management report (trends, top causes, comparisons) was a manual job that ate most of a day, and the totals between sheets sometimes disagreed.

Leadership wanted several views at once: month over month, year over year, a 12-month average and the full-period picture, plus how the cause structure was shifting. That was too much to keep up by hand.

Business challenges

Months of inconsistent spreadsheets

Scrap detail lived in sheets that did not line up cleanly.

Many comparison views wanted

MoM, YoY, 12-month and full-period were heavy to build by hand.

Cause structure kept shifting

The top causes changed month to month and were hard to track.

Totals sometimes disagreed

Different summary sheets did not always reconcile.

Solution

We reconciled the full scrap history and generated a consistent monthly report: the latest month against month-over-month, year-over-year, the 12-month average and the full period, plus the top causes and how the cause structure is shifting over time.

The report separates real signal from noise (a one-off versus a trend) and never invents numbers: it reports only what the data supports, with a checking view so the totals are verifiable.

Scope
Rapid design & deployment

One expensive problem, proven before it scales. The A1 to POC method, run in weeks not quarters.

A1 · Confirm the goal
Find which views leadership actually uses.
A2 · Audit the data
Reconcile the months and the spreadsheets.
A3 · Design the report
Agree the comparison logic and cause structure.
POC · Regenerate the past
Rebuild past months and check against known numbers.
Handoff · Monthly run
Ship the monthly run and the checking view.
Governance & standards

Our delivery practices define human decision ownership, source and output traceability, data boundaries, change control and review evidence.

Personal credential
Vincent Lin · PECB Certified ISO/IEC 42001 Lead Implementer

The credential is held personally by Vincent Lin.

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